Jones Family Feud Takes to the Internet

George Jones and daughter air dirty laundry.

Ken Tucker

George Jones and his daughter with Tammy Wynette, Georgette, are having a very public feud. The 80-year-old country star posted a video message on his website Wednesday (April 25), thanking fans as he recovers from an upper respiratory infection. He then accused his daughter of spreading lies about him on the Internet.

"I would like to apologize for my daughter Georgette and her new husband for putting so much bad things about me on the Internet and Facebook," George says in the video. "None of these things are true. They are all about money. I have gave and gave until I can no longer give. I will never let her go hungry, but I am tired of putting out, and I am not the person they claim I am."

Georgette says she is "completely devastated" by his message and denies making any negative statements about him. "I have never wanted anything but his love and don't want anything else now or ever. I love him and always will," she tells CountryWeekly.com via e-mail.

"I had hoped that we could resolve this between the two of us privately and at some point he would talk to me," she told the Associated Press. "Unfortunately, things have escalated even further."

Georgette says their relationship became strained a couple years ago when she became friends with her two brothers from George's' second marriage. George had a falling out with his two sons about 20 years ago, and does not communicate with them, she contends. Her relationship with her father reached a breaking point last year when she was planning her wedding to Jamie Lennon. Her brothers were OK with not attending if it meant George would be there to give her away, but Georgette says she never got an answer from George until she saw on his website he had booked a gig on the same day.

Her 18-year-old twin sons walked her down the aisle. "It's been heartbreaking. When I lost my mom 14 years ago, I realized at that point in my life how absolutely short life is and you're not guaranteed anything, not another day. My father and I hadn't spoken in over a year at that point, and that's when I really decided I wanted to make an effort to try to mend things," Georgette told the AP. "My family means the world to me, and that includes my dad, and I would never say anything negative about him or [his fourth wife] Nancy. . . . I hope at some point he will sit down and listen to me and that we can talk this out and be a family again."

Georgette believes that people have been lying to her dad about what they have seen on her Facebook account and elsewhere. "He's been told that I have sold stories to tabloids, which obviously I have not done and I can prove that I haven't done that. I've never wanted money or anything from my father," she contends. With George's recent health scare[2], his daughter says she tried to reach out, to no avail.

She heard from a friend of the family that George had pneumonia and told that to fans online, asking them to send prayers his way. His publicist insisted that he had only an upper respiratory infection. She says she was not trying to make it look like he was sicker than he was or cause problems with future concert dates and ticket sales.

Georgette contends that the high price of fame has taken its toll on her father. "In the past, there have been family members and there have been good friends and there have been management and people on all scales of life who have taken advantage of him, and they have stolen from him and they have been nice to his face and then stabbed him in the back when he turned and walked away," she tells the AP. So I know for him it's been very difficult to know who to trust even in your family, and that's a very sad and horrible thing to have to face."

She calls the current situation "the most painful thing I have ever experienced other than my mother's death."

George's publicist says that no further statement will be issued from the legend. —additional reporting by Jessica Nicholson